A return home against a team that the Thunder has seemed to always have issues with. And not because of unfavorable matchups. Just for whatever reason, the Suns always seem to have someone play big. Last time is was Grant Hill throwing back to 1997 against Oklahoma City. But with the Thunder looking to make a solid push and gain some momentum, you’ve got to think this game is a big priority.

Phoenix coming in: The Suns are playing really well, winning five of six. They last played Friday.

THE MATCHUPS
There’s a small question as to if Steve Nash is totally ready to go in this one as he’s battling a small abdomen issue. But even if he’s not, recently acquired Aaron Brooks gives the Suns a really nice scoring option. Vince Carter is questionable, but between him, Brooks and Nash, Phoenix has some pretty good offensive weapons. Historically though, Russell Westbrook has played well against both Brooks and Nash.

Inside, they’ve greatly improved themselves with the addition of Marcin Gortat to go with Robin Lopez. Gortat gives them a physical presence on the interior while Lopez has a bit of offensive game. And then at power forward is Channing Frye who wants to float along the perimeter and look for open 3s. Serge Ibaka has to stay disciplined and really should look to go inside on Frye. It wouldn’t shock me to see Scott Brooks go small with Kevin Durant at power forward for a lot of this game because of Frye though.

Just like the past few games, the Thunder needs a solid spark from James Harden off the bench. When Harden plays well, scoring above 15 points, the Thunder are a really, really good team. OKC’s bench has been a huge weapon with Daequan Cook, Eric Maynor and company and this is the type of game where they should make a difference.

To be fair, KD's our man and thats a shot that he needs to have to confidence to take. Of course sometimes maybe passing would be a better play, but they're still so young. We can't expect them to be perfect.

What i try to take away from a game like this is... learning experience (hopefully for brooks with the lineups), but its always encouraging to pull the win off.

That foul on Carter at the end was bogus, lots of bad calls in this game both ways IMO. Karama that he missed two of them.

@ThomasI actually liked that look quite a bit. Yeah, it was further from the basket than you'd like, but it was a clean shot off a solid curl. It was actually a well-executed play! Well, up until the miss.

@justinNo, probably not. I do think that there is some merit to the argument that Harden provides a punch to the 2nd unit. If you start Harden, do you then use Cook to back him up and let Thabo spell KD.

This is yet another game where Brooks fails to draw up, anything really, as far as getting an open, decent look at the end of regulation. Teams have to feel pretty confident against us in those situations because they know exactly what will happen and that no one but KD will take the shot even in spite of a double team, triple team etc. (quintuple team?).

@Sammyyeah, i've been reading some just now and that's been pretty much exactly what i've been thinking. it seems frustrating that you have such incredibly talented weapons on this team but you just scratch your head in frustration wondering if they're being used to their maximum potential. my concern is that the players could potentially become disgruntled with the system/coaching and that that frustration could start coming through in their playing...

Thabo is not a player like KG or Howard who can make every teammate play good defense.Thabo needs a good defense coach to build a system and plays his best in it.I miss Ron Adams now.If he is still here,he can do better because we got Perk and Nazr now.

@ThunderbeardI think torrents are hard to come by unless it's a big nat'l game. I haven't looked too closely though.For your second question, just scroll through a few of the comments in this thread, and I think you'll get a pretty quick answer to our thoughts on that issue...

Hey, I'm new to the comments section, does anyone know if you can download torrents of the already played games? Also, in all seriousness as well, are we utilizing our talent to its maximum potential? I don't get to actually watch the games all that much because of my location but watching some of the lineups on the nba tv companion site don't quite make sense even with my limited basketball knowledge???

I really don't understand why all the hating on Thabo tonight. He was 3-5 from the field 1-3 on 3pt with 9 boards. VC did have a big night but who on the Thunder was going to stop him tonight. He was just on. I know you'll say JH but I don't think he did too well either. Thabo did make some really nice plays tonight. What is it you expect from him? We all know Harden is better and whether he or Thabo starts is another argument. I am beginning to realize that some of you just have to have something to bitch about and now that Green is gone, Thabo and Brooks are battling it out to become the new number one whipping boy.

Sammy :Feel like this game is a bit of a litmus test of where you score on the Westbrook-hater scale. I’d take that game from him every night of the week and pay max dollars to get it, but I think there’s a segment of okc fans who won’t be able to get past the bone-headed plays.

I’m really torn on this. I think Russ will improve on his decision making, but I don’t think this style of play from him will get us over the hump.

I think its a matter of the team figuring out that trusting each other the WHOLE game is the only way to go. There's only one Kobe who can just take over games at the end of games. Even then, the lakers are often better served by going through pau and ball movement. I just dont know what it will take for the game to realize this. because for as much as the media talked about us being precocious against la last year, we couldve won game 1, game 2 and game 6 w/ better late game execution.

I get the impression that Brooks empowers Russ with this kind of open, isolation driven, decision tree. Do you think after a game like this, Brooks is talking to Russ about his decisions down the stretch? Or Kevin Durant?

Sammy :Feel like this game is a bit of a litmus test of where you score on the Westbrook-hater scale. I’d take that game from him every night of the week and pay max dollars to get it, but I think there’s a segment of okc fans who won’t be able to get past the bone-headed plays.

I'm really torn on this. I think Russ will improve on his decision making, but I don't think this style of play from him will get us over the hump.

I think the thing that bothered me the most was that when Frye went down we did not go big to take advantage. Where they going to play lopez and Gortat at the same time? Doubt it. We just always play to the other teams strenghts. If they go big, we go big. If they go small we go smaller. And lastly, I want Thabo to provide the same type of good defense and vetran leadership Royal Ivey does. I also want him on the floor only when Royal is in and never, ever, never, ever at PF agian.

Feel like this game is a bit of a litmus test of where you score on the Westbrook-hater scale. I'd take that game from him every night of the week and pay max dollars to get it, but I think there's a segment of okc fans who won't be able to get past the bone-headed plays.

We don't have a mismatch, we have an idiotic coaching staff that doesn't know how to take advantage of various lineups and when to use them. There is a difference. And Yes, I think Green and Kristic are okc baby's pimps